This is the Orn demo. It can be played on an emulator (such as VisualBoy
Advance) or on the GBA (if you have a GBA flash ROM and linker). The emulator will have better color,
but the GBA outputs better sound (no graininess).

For those who like the music, this is the main theme to Orn (what it plays while you're exploring Brinstar).

This is actually a high-quality version that I wrote in order to sketch out what I wanted before creating the
XM version for the GBA.

The rest of Orn's soundtrack is more like a direct re-write of the original Metroid music.

Overview

Orn is my "Capstone Project" for the Masters in Multidisciplinary Studies degree offered at RIT. It
is side-scrolling action game demo for the Game Boy Advance, unofficially based on the first area (Brinstar)
of the original NES Metroid released by Nintendo in 1986. It is a purely academic project, and I am the only
person working on it. I am receiving no monetary benefits from it and it is not meant to be a replacement
of the original game. If you want to play an official Metroid remake on the GBA, check out Metroid:
Zero Mission by Nintendo.

Orn as you see it here is as complete as I intended it to be. There are a few bugs but no showstoppers. I
am pleased to say that ss of May 2004 I was graded an 'A' for Orn and granted my Master's degree.

Features

Because Orn is based on the original Metroid game, it implements many of the features, though there are some
differences. The following attempts to list preserved features, changed features, added features, and excluded
features.

Preserved Features

Ability to traverse labrynthine world of Brinstar, the first area encountered in Metroid

Ability to run, jump, and perform jump flips, and fire the main weapon

Ability to acquire a morph ball which allows the character to transform into a ball and roll about

Ability to acquire a suit power up that increase the defensive power of the suit

Ability to acquire energy and amunition tanks that increase the maximum allowable energy and ammunition

Doors which open when shot with the main weapon or with missiles (or the equivalent, see "changed features")

Travelling from one section or "room" from another via doors

Changed Features

Morph bombs were replaced with Morph Discharge, which destroys any destructable blocks near the character,
and hits enemies on the ground

Ice-Beam was replaced with Screw Attack

Missiles were replaced with a "Graviton Pulse" which basically does the same thing.

Added Features

Ability to aim in 8 different directions (as in Super Metroid)

Ability to crouch (as in Super Metroid)

Ability to "lock" previous aiming by holding down the "L" button (similar to Super Contra)

The Wall Jump ability from Super Metroid is available from start (allows player to jump off walls during a
spin jump)

Ability to acquire the Morph Jump from Super Metroid (allows the player to jump in Morph Ball form)

Auto-morphing when the player moves the character into a small (1 or 2 block tall) crevice.

Screw Attack (originally found in Norfair; this was added to Orn's Brinstar to replace the Ice Beam)

Excluded Features

Morph Bombs (explained above)

Wave Beam (not found in Brinstar)

Ice Beam (replaced with Screw Attack)

Elevators are not needed because the player is restricted to Brinstar

Password save ( Use emulator save states. Besides, the playable area is so small this is probably not
necessary anyway)

Story

It is galactic year 20WX, several years before the events in the original Metroid. Hydra, a veteran smuggler, is
engaged in what she expects to be a "routine" delivery mission to the planet Zebeth. But a nearby
patrol of Federation fighers suddenly decloaks and opens fire on her vessel, damaging its engines. Unable to escape
pursuit, she instead decides to attempt a crash landing.

Once the surface, Hydra has no means to hide her downed vessel, and realizes she must think fast. A quick scan
of the area reveals a nearby teleportation device. Where could it lead? With no other options, she discards her
ship with all of its cargo and enters the teleporter. The game begins with Hydra reappearing inside the labrynthine
tunnels of Zebeth.

Protagonist

Hydra is the main protagonist of the game.

Though in the original Metroid the manual art and game sprites left certain attributes open to debate, in the
sequels it became clear that Samus is something of a knight in (literally) shining armor. But as a child I had
imagined her as being more hardened, her armor worn and covered with battle scars - a bit like Boba Fett.

I did not want Hydra to follow in Samus' footsteps in this regard. Unlike Metroid's Samus, Hydra is more roguish
than heroic, and she is nonhuman. Hunted by the federation, she is more concerned with staying alive than with
saving the galaxy.

Model

Before modeling I created a large number of pencil and/or ink studies. For the most part I tried to keep to
my sketches. I had to make modifications for certain physically impossible features that look good in 2D but not
3D. Unfortunately I also had to do away with the shoulder-mounted cannon, which causes more design problems than
I can solve in the given timeframe (though I'd like to add it back in at a later date).

Though the game sprite should only be about 32 pixels tall, I wanted to use the same model for high-res stills,
so I initially modeled it (in Maya) with subdivision surfaces and NURBs. But then I found UV mapping with sub-ds
to be wonky, so I converted all the sub-ds to polys. In retrospect it would have been good to make the entire model
in NURBS so that the UV map would have matched the contours of the geometry. As it was I had to straighten the
UVs by hand.

Textures were made in Photoshop, and were largely based on scans of some highly stained cookware found in my
kitchen.

Another blue sky feature would be to allow play with the suit off, ala the NES
Metroid.

Leg Concepts and Final Model

Assorted Concept Art and Renders

Creatures

I wanted Orn to feel like it was a part of the same universe as the original Metroid. To do this I modeled each
creature carefully, based on art from the original Metroid instruction booklet (found on the excellent Metroid
Database website) and the in-game sprites.

Whenever there was a conflict between the manual and the game, I generally let the in-game sprites prevail while
attempting to keep the detail shown in the manual art. For example, the position, contour, and color of the creature
Rio differed between concept and sprite, so I modeled these more in keeping with the sprite,
but keeping the segmented plating visible in the concept art.

Orn consists of the Brinstar environment found in the original NES Metroid. Though I would like to have created
an entirely unique level design with multiple regions, there unfortunately wasn't much time for me to be doing
this. Each environment is instead be based entirely on the Metroid version, with adjustments to compensate for
the smaller screen size. The Orn tilesets use touched-up versions of the Metroid tilesets for the foreground, and
have 1 - 3 layers of scrolling background features (some of which are unique, some of which are motified images
from other Metroid games).

Below are some Mock-ups I'd made using my touched-up tilesets (the final versions look so close to the Mock-ups
that I am lazily leaving these up). On the left you can see the original Metroid tiles. On the right are the Orn
tiles.

Area

Original NES Metroid Screen(256 x 224)

Orn Mock-Up Screen(240 x 160)

Brinstar - Blue Horizontal Corridor

Brinstar - Blue Vertical Shaft

Brinstar - Gold Horizontal Corridor

Brinstar - Gold Vertical Shaft

Brinstar - Green Horizontal Corridor

Brinstar - Blue Horizontal Corridor 2

Memory Usage

VRAM Layout

Layer

Purpose

# of Tiles

Block

Memory Range

BG0

Foreground

1024

0

0x6000000 - 0x6007FFF

BG1

Repeating texture

256

1 (first half)

0x6008000 - 0x6009FFF

BG2

Repeating texture

256

2 (second half)

0x600A000 - 0x600BFFF

BG3

Repeating texture

256

3 (first half)

0x600C000 - 0x600DFFF

Maps

Maps for BG0-BG3

= 256

3 (second half)

0x600E000 - 0x600FFFF

Currently the tileset of each background is assembled out of multiple images palettized to separate 16 color
palettes.

Sprite Palette Layout

Note that no two monsters with the same palette may coexist in the same section.

Pal #

Purpose

0

Hero

1

Normal Beam

2

Graviton Pulse

3

Zoomer A, Zoomer C

4

Zoomer B

5

Ripper A, Ripper C

6

Ripper B

7

Rio A

8

Rio B

9

Zeb A

10

Zeb B, Mellow

11

Waver A

12

Waver B, Skree

13

Doors (blue and red)

14

Hud

15

Damage Pal

Schedule

Realizing the project would take longer than the quarter I will be registered for it, I performed a lot of pre-production
during the summer and fall quarter.

All in all it took about 6 months to complete Orn. I had a couple of weeks leeway at the end to add some tweaks
and such.

This is an unofficial fan site and is not affiliated with Nintendo of America, Inc., or Nintendo
Co., Ltd. The author takes NO credit and imply NO rights to any official Nintendo images, text or other works contained
herein.

The content provided on this website is for educational and entertainment purposes only. The
creator obtains no financial profit from the website or the Orn demo game whatsoever.

The author does not provide or distribute official Nintendo game ROMs.